An Ocala woman who gained worldwide attention for flashing a grin in her arrest mugshot after a three-vehicle crash left a woman clinging to life is scheduled to go on trial in May.
In addition, Angenette Marie Welk was ordered to surrender her pilot’s license and her Medical Certificate First Class that was issued by the Federal Aviation Administration. That directive came from Judge Steven G. Rogers last week during a Feb. 19 hearing in which he also scheduled jury selection to begin on May 13 at 8:30 a.m.
Welk originally was arrested May 10 and charged with one count of driving under the influence with serious bodily harm and two counts of DUI with property damage. She was taken into custody by a Florida Highway Patrol trooper after her 2011 Chevy Avalanche slammed into the back of a 2017 Hyundai Elantra driven by 18-year-old Shiyanne Kroll, of Seattle. The crash occurred at the intersection of NW 60th Avenue and U.S. Hwy. 27 and Kroll’s passenger, 60-year-old Sandra Clarkston, of Sarasota, was critically injured.
Clark succumbed to her injuries four days later while being treated at Ocala Regional Medical Center and the charge against Welk was upgraded to DUI manslaughter.
Welk, who married Eric John Missett, of Ocala, seven days after the crash and has since moved to Washington State, had provided two breath samples showing .172 and .165 blood alcohol content – both twice the legal limit of .08 in Florida. She told the trooper investigating the crash that she had dropped her phone and when she looked up, she was about to collide with Kroll’s sedan.
Welk’s attorney, Stacy Youmans, of Blanchard, Merriam, Adel & Kirkland, made the request in December to allow her client to move to Washington State. The State Attorney’s office fought the motion but Judge Rogers eventually agreed that Welk could leave Marion County if she agreed to several conditions, which included:
- Being confined to her residence;
- Being allowed to seek employment and work;
- Providing a new address and any change in the address where she resides within 24 hours;
- Relinquishing any type of passport and refraining from applying for a “physical copy” of her passport;
- Surrendering any type of driver’s license or pilot’s license;
- Not operating any type of motorized vehicle or airplane defined in Florida Statutes;
- Not possessing or consuming alcohol or any illegal drugs without a valid prescription;
- Being placed on a GPS monitor;
- Having no contact with Clarkson’s family, which includes Kroll, Keonna Sciacca, Daniel Clarkston and Keith Zetzer; and
- Appearing in person at the pretrial conference that was held this past Tuesday.
Welk’s initial booking photo at the Marion County Jail, which showed her grinning with her head tilted to one side, quickly gained worldwide notoriety. It caught the attention of websites, television stations and newspapers across the globe. And it caused her attorney to come to her defense a few days after the crash.
At the time, Youmans defended her client by calling her “a good-hearted person, a wife, mother and friend who is devastated by what happened.” She added that Welk’s “heart breaks for the Clarkston family.”
Youmans, a Florida native and former prosecutor, has extensive courtroom experience. She recently successfully represented 21-year-old Brice Hall, who escaped prosecution for a charge of manslaughter in the death of a McCall’s Tavern employee in June 2016 in The Villages. Youmans had filed a motion to dismiss the case against her client using a Stand Your Ground defense.